


The Night is Closing In

by manicfrost



Series: If there's another way to go [1]
Category: Marvel, The Incredible Hulk (TV)
Genre: Angst, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, i binge watched this show and wrote drabble for a server now im here thanks hulkfam server, this authors first fic ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-06
Updated: 2019-03-19
Packaged: 2019-11-12 17:47:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18015497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manicfrost/pseuds/manicfrost
Summary: What happened between the lab explosion and the funeral? The emotional process Dr David Banner went through before starting his journey.Or: Ken Johnson WISHES he had the range





	1. Escape

**Author's Note:**

> Series and chapter titles from "Valjean's soliloquy" from Les Miserables, which fun fact, Ken Johnson based David and Mcgee's dynamic off.

“Oh, my poor David… who will take care of you now?” 

He stumbled, half falling against a large tree. Running, he had to keep running. The…. Creature had been running when he “came back” and he had kept it up, albeit slower. He needed to get as far away as possible. Why? Away from… what was left? His research, the lab…. Elaina……gone. 

He stood up, still leaning against the tree. He was tired, bone tired. He was finding that every change was like this, not just the first. It felt like his body had run a marathon without his permission. Invincibility and healing was saved for the creature it seemed. 

Catching his breath, he observed his surroundings as to figure out how far he- it- had taken him. It was pitch black, he was only able to see with the moon. He estimated this “episode” must’ve been an hour or so given it was dusk when-. He shook his head. There was the distant rushing sound of cars, a highway. Well, he could cross out “super speed” from the Creatures strengths. There was one only five miles from the south lab. Near…. home.


	2. Nothing now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elaina had always been his “person” to call in troubled times. She was who he went to after the Creature’s first appearance. It was only two days ago he had shown up in rags on her doorstep. Elaina had helped him without hesitation, later even staring down the Creature, speaking to it. But she was gone now. He was being hit with the realization he really had no one this time. He was truly alone in this.
> 
> (A new fugitive returns to the Banner house but someone else has the same idea)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hgrhgh this whole thing was supposed to be a small bit but now it's turned into a mini episode, I'm so sorry. Jack managed to weasel his way into this chapter, which is kind of in character. And yeah, David isn't having exactly bright feelings about hulk rn so that's why there's a lot of calling Hulk "it" or snide jabs. The author of this fic otherwise loves that funky green boy.

He closed the backdoor quietly, half suspecting to find himself surrounded. Something inside him was urging him to be quiet. Keeping the lights off, he went upstairs to change into some un-shredded clothes as he tried to process all of this. Why hadn’t he just walked back to the lab? No. He wouldn't have been able to, not like this. He was still coming down from the daze he felt after the Creature.

The state of his clothes would be off-putting to whoever was there now, though he doubted they'd connect him to the Creature. That'd be an awful jump, one he'd never make himself if this wasn't _his_ hell. He decided to turn on the radio in his bedroom, volume low, switching to the news channel. After a couple adverts and a weather update, he heard it :

_"We’re getting reports of an accident at the Culver Institute, south lab… large explosion, 2 dead”_

‘ _Two_?’ David thought. He knew the first was Elaina. He’d blacked out as the Creature, and god knows what had happened next. He’d clung to the hope that maybe it’d saved her, maybe it’d carried her to safety, maybe she was tucked away safe in a hospital bed, maybe…. no. He'd realized she had to be dead when he found himself alone when he "came back".

_"Two of Culver’s scientists were inside, and are said to have been working late when a fire broke out. A witness confirming that without a doubt, both perished as result"_

They thought he was…dead. They thought he was dead. He sat down on his bed for a moment. God, he wanted so badly to sleep and wake up to find this was all another bad, bad, dream. He sat like this for a while as the report ended. He stood up, walking over to the window to peak outside.

Dr. David Banner had come to a crossroads. Run, or reach for the phone and call for help, tell someone he was alive, who could help him. But…who? 

There was no one he could really call. Elaina had always been his “person” to call in troubled times. She was who he went to after the Creature’s first appearance. It was only two days ago he had shown up in rags on her doorstep. Elaina had helped him without hesitation, later even staring down the Creature, speaking to it.

But she was gone now.

He was being hit with the realization he really had no one this time. He was truly alone in this.

He turned to look at his bed. The emptiness on the untouched left side. Laura's side. He gently rested his hand on it, as if he could as if he could feel some since lost warmth. His running would mean the death of David Banner. Run, and be a walking dead-man and searching for cure. Or stay, and risk the Creature harming others. Making his choice, he went back down the stairs, but stopped.

He heard car pulling up the driveway.

 

\----------

 

David bolted back up the stairs into his room, ducking into his closet. He could hear footsteps moving around below. What a stupid hiding place he realized he’d chosen. He was trapped now. But who broke into a dead man's house? The report had only just broke, who’d of known it was him who died besides the authorities. The authorities, and-

The footsteps were coming up the stairs and continuing down the hallway towards the bedroom. The door creaked open and the light was turned on. David’s heart was pounding out of his chest. He needed to slow it or the Creature would take over. Breathing as quiet as possible, he peered through the slats on the door.

It was him. That reporter, limping in like it was his place. He peeked behind the door, then continuing to pick through the rest of the room, peering under the bed and pawing through drawers. Did he suspect David of being alive? He’d seen him run towards the flames, why would he need assurance? David’s heart near stopped when the man looked over at the closet door.

The reporter walked towards him, soon standing that if the door were not between them, David could’ve touched him if he stretched far enough. But the intruder stopped, noticing something on the floor. He picked up, what David could see, was his torn shirt. Shit.

The man looked up again at the closet door again remembering his original intent, took a step closer, reaching for the handle.

David wondered how his heart-beat hadn’t given him away yet. He could almost feel the Creature there now. But before the investigation could continue, right when David thought for sure he was found out, there were more noises downstairs. Someone else had entered the house.

“McGee? You in there? I see your car out here”

McGee cursed to himself, quickly pulled his hand back and hastily exited the room, rags in hand. David could hear him, responding from what sounded like the top of the stairs “Yes, Officer“

“You best be getting out, you know you’re not supposed to be here.” The new visitor said.

McGee sputtered “Well, see what I found? Rags. They look like the ones the Creature wore when I saw it at the lab! It looks like someone made a stop here to change. Steal even. There's a story here”

“Don’t turn this tragedy into some kinda extraterrestrial shit, McGee. A man’s dead, and you’re digging through his house. You’re in shock. You probably inhaled something from the chemical fire. Go home and put that leg up.”

The footsteps were fading as the two men left the house. David listened for the door to close before turning off the light and darting over to the window to peak out. He watched the conversation continued outside.

“I’m telling you, officer-“ McGee stood at the head of the pathway, “I’m telling you, your people should have this place surrounded. That lab is a crime scene, and that killer could be around here somewhere. Banner knew him you know. He could be here waiting to strike again. He could be watching us now-”

“It WILL be watched. I’m  currently on watch to keep people from breaking in for attention-” The other man tried leading McGee away by the shoulder.

“Well I’m not stopping you- hey!” he wrenched away as he noticed the remark, briefly looking back at the house. David ducked. He was never good at hide-and-seek.

“Was that light on up there?" David heard McGee ask. "In the bedroom, I turned it on,” 

“You were in his room? Jesus Christ-”

“Someone’s in there, officer. Let me go back in-“

“Go HOME, Mr. McGee” the Officer said firmly. There was continued conversation, mostly lead on by McGee pestering to go inside, but nothing worth hearing.  Eventually the two boarded their respective vehicles and departed, leaving David alone once more. He let out a sigh he didn’t know he’d been holding. He dejectedly went to quickly packing his bag. He slipped out the back door, leaving the yard, unable to bring himself to look back at what he was leaving.

 

\------

 

He weaved through the bushes and houses, until he was blocks away, in the scrappy patch of woods nearby, out of sight. The sun was starting to rise. David tugged his jacket closer to himself as to shield himself from the chill in the wind. Running was the only answer here. McGee was starting a fire with the press (Though David doubted he’d have to deal with the small-time reporter again)

The Creature would most definitely be labeled as a murderer and he’d be labeled as most definitely dead.

The Creature had really killed David Banner, in a way.

The new fugitive intended on avenging him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW its a cheesy ass closing line, but bare with me ok.
> 
> Next chapter is gonna be a kind of epilogue that reaches the funeral scene.


	3. Another Story

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter to my fic of the aftermath we never saw in the show.  
> Or- David Banner dies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tense changes part way through on purpose- I'm implying present time for David at the bus station as he leaves.

              The funeral were held quickly after. Glum, even from a distance. Quite a few of David and Elaina’s colleagues had shown up. And unfortunately, that reporter, now on crutches. Neither Helen or D.W. Banner had attended, much to the deceased scientist’s dismay. But he couldn’t really say it was a surprise to him. With David Banner’s remains unfound, there was no coffin for him. The authorities assumed, with it having been a chemical fire, there’d been nothing left. A backwards-favor.

               Meanwhile, Elaina’s coffin was covered in flowers. She deserved them. She’d been a brave woman, a scientist, even to the very end. After the crowd dispersed, after the dead man bid farewell to his friend, he stopped- standing over his own grave. He was doing this, wasn't he? Walking away really meant death- to David Bruce Banner.

              “ _David Bruce Banner_ ” the gravestone read. That was the last time he'd read his real name

                                                                     -------------------------------------------

 

So here he is, a few hours later, at the bus station.

“-I need your name sir.” The man at the booth says to him, snapping him out of his reminiscence.

“What?”

The ticket agent says, growing annoyed “Your _name._ I need your name.“

He hasn’t thought of a name, despite knowing he can’t use his own anymore.

“David-“ _you’re not him anymore…. he died that night, when she died,  dead since the fire, since-_

He speaks up after a pause.

“Bartlett- David Bartlett”

Risky, but he wants to hold onto _something_. After he boards the bus, he pensively looks out the window as he sits down. The bus jolts to life, driving into the night. 

He can't stop looking at that damn ticket each time a passing light illuminates it. _David Bartlett_. Twice now, within 2 days, the Creature had chipped away some part of him, his life, his name. What next? What else _was_ there? He isn’t David Banner anymore. How long he can keep this name? How long before this man dies too?

The bus passes one of those signs meant for tourists, all done up with an idealistic picture of the city. "Now leaving-" David can't bare to look at it as reality hits, his eyes well up as he sits alone in the dark bus.

 _'David Banner is back **there**_ ,' he thinks to himself. ' _In the cemetery_. _Dead in stone, dead on paper, dead to the world. **Gone**.'_

Maybe the Creature wasn't the one with blood on his hands. Maybe there had been a murder. But maybe the blame was misplaced. Maybe David Banner's killer was sitting in that very bus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had fun writing this! Sorry if it seemed a little sloppy, this is my first ACTUAL fic. S/o to the hulk fam sever for being a bunch of enablers for this.

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to the hulkfam server for encouraging my hulk obsession leading to me watching a 40+ year old show and writing THIS


End file.
